Lord of the Rings

Turkish doctor Bilgin Çiftçi could be spending up to two years in prison for sharing an image that compares the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to Gollum from Lord of the Rings.

Mockery of the president is punishable by jail time in Turkey, so in order to avoid it, Çiftçi's legal team is arguing that Gollum is a hero in the series. After the judge in the trial admitted that he had never seen the films in their entirety, he appointed a team of experts who must determine whether or not the defense has any legs. The team has between now and February to decide if Gollum's accidental heroics are enough to keep Çiftçi out of jail.

Iandumoema smeagol is a newly discovered type of daddy longlegs (also called harvestmen) which is a type of arachnid but NOT a spider. It has a lot in common with its namesake, it lives underground and it's a sickly yellow color. One thing it's missing is those large eyes.

Yes, they want to build an actual, full scale Minas Tirith somewhere in England.

We are an ambitious team of architects and structural engineers who are passionate about creating a beautiful, inspirational and fully-functioning replica of Peter Jackson's depiction of Minas Tirith, as seen in his Lord of the Rings films.

We believe that, in realising Minas Tirith, we can create not only the most remarkable tourist attraction on the planet, but also a wonderfully unique place to live and work.

We aim to create both residential and commercial properties, allowing for sustainable growth and a high quality of life.

They only need £1,850,000,000 to make it happen. That's $288,2947,500, stateside.

In order to realise this amazing dream, we have calculcated our required budget to be in the region of £1.85bn. The vast majority of this expense will cover building costs - £15m for land, £188m for labour and £1.4bn for material.

The remainder of the money will be invested in maintenance and public services until the year 2053.
We aim to commence work on Minas Tirith by the end of 2016, and complete the project by the end of 2023.
We are currently considering two locations for Minas Tirith, both in southern England.

A wealth of available perks are all set and ready for those who donate. The architects will follow you on Twitter for a donation of £3 and you will receive a four-bedroom luxury penthouse for a donation of £1.7 million.

This perk goes to those who donate 100,000.

Grants you and your family exclusive access to all areas of the city, excluding private residences and businesses, and also permits use of horse-drawn carriages for transport. You will receive priority on property purchases, direct communication links to us (the developers) and a seat on the city's Executive Committee. You will also be invited to many annual exclusive events.

So far, it seems like they've had a tough time selling the project. The campaign has been underway for 12 days, and they've raised over £17,000 at the time of this writing, but that's not even 1 percent of the goal.

This week Stephen Colbert did some "Lord of the Rings" cosplay and wrote about the new movie "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" as a guest editor at "Entertainment Weekly."

On Thursday night, things got even weirder.

Smaug the dragon (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) stopped by his set for a chat – or at least his massive head did.

In the 7-minute interview we learn some important things: that he has eaten the ladies of "The View," he was offered a role on "Sherlock" but turned it down because he said hates that "hack" Cumberbatch, he supports stand-your-ground laws (especially when it comes to Bilbo Baggins) and he supports Rand Paul for president in 2016.

He also slammed some of the other big dragons in TV and movies – including Daenerys' three children and Toothless from "How to Train Your Dragon."